With small arms such as pistols or rifles, the ammunition or cartridge comprises a gun powder propellant packed into a cartridge case having a primer with a bullet projectile packed in the mouth of the cartridge case. When fired, a firing pin strikes the primer in the cartridge case igniting the gun powder and propelling the bullet from the firearm. The firing pin typically only dents the primer which is replaceable, and thus, spent cartridge cases may be reloaded and reused multiple times.
Such reloading can be done by individuals very economically and further provides the options of customized propellants and/or bullets. Moreover, reloading provides an incentive for the collecting and recycling of spent cartridge cases.
Although reloading has numerous benefits, the reloading process requires substantial skill, specialized equipment, and great care. Errors in the reloading process can be very hazardous causing injuries to the users of the reloaded ammunition as well as bystanders. Generally, spent cartridge cases must be first cleaned and inspected, adjusted back to proper size, primed, and filled with the proper amount of the propellant. Next, a bullet is placed in the mouth of the cartridge case and properly seated sealing the propellant within the cartridge case.
A critical step is the proper placing of the bullet within the mouth of the cartridge case. If the bullet is improperly placed, the bullet may separate from the cartridge case before the bullet is pressed and fully seated. Similarly, if the bullet is incorrectly orientated during pressing, the bullet may malfunction when fired.
Often, during reloading, reloaders will individually insert by hand the bullets into the cartridge cases. This is time consuming and tedious.
Specialized equipment has been used for placing bullets in the cartridge cases. See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,602,084; 4,573,392; and 5,179,243. These devices typically involve numerous moving parts and are mechanically complex. Changing out such bullet feeding components for reloading a different size of ammunition can thus be complicated and difficult. A simple, reliable, bullet feeding system that can be easily changed out for other sizes would be highly desirable.